


Hijinks and Life Colors

by IBrokeThe4thWall



Series: Kid! April AU [2]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Family Fluff, Gen, Humor, Sibling Bonding, Things get intense, Tumblr RP with tallgirl14, but splinter's only there for a second, don't mess with donnie when he's in the science-zone, donnie is stronk, especially when it's his coffee, kid! april AU, leo is banned from the garage, random pop-culture references abound
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26517463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBrokeThe4thWall/pseuds/IBrokeThe4thWall
Summary: When a prank that goes wrong for Leo goes right for her, April learns just how intense Donnie can be when he's been awake for days on end while working in his lab. Donnie then invites her to help him out with a project and gives her a present in the process. April finds out that, while Donnie is very thoughtful with his gifts, they sometimes aren't as appealing as he hopes.
Series: Kid! April AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910008
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	Hijinks and Life Colors

Leo watched Donnie walk out of the kitchen holding his favorite purple mug and scrolling through his phone. The blue-clad turtle smirked as an idea struck him. Nudging April, he grinned down at his little sister.

“What?” April asked, catching the puckish mood Leo was in.

“I know if I run at Donnie full speed,” Leo said, bouncing on his toes, “that he will catch me.”

Without waiting for a response, he dashed to the softshell. Donnie hadn’t noticed his younger brother until the very last second when Leo launched himself into the air with a laugh.

“No, wait!” Donnie shouted. “I have coffee!”

He side-stepped out of Leo’s path, saving his coffee and letting Leo crash to the floor. The purple-loving turtle scoffed when a groan drifted from the kitchen before walking back to his lab. Leo should know better by now not to mess with Donnie this early in the morning.

The next morning, April leaned against the wall and watched Donnie trudge into the kitchen. Leo was beside her, talking with Mikey and Raph about jump tricks and reminding April about his “jump trick” the previous morning. She wondered if she should test her luck. April nudged Leo. When she had his attention, she tilted her head towards Donnie zombie-walking back towards his lab with a mug of wake-up juice.

“Let me try today,” she said with a grin.

Leo gave her a gleeful smile but shook his head. “If he wouldn’t catch me, I doubt he—”

Ignoring Leo, April ran full tilt at Donnie. The softshell didn’t see her until the very last second when she jumped right at him, just like Leo had the day before. Donnie had garbage reflexes this early in the morning.

“No, wait!” Donnie cried out.

He couldn’t stop April in midair, so Donnie committed his ultimate sacrifice. He dropped his beloved mug of coffee. As the mug shattered on the floor, Donnie caught his little sister. Mikey and Raph cheered, and Leo stared on in disbelief.

“What?!” Leo shouted. “So, you would catch April over me?”

“Most certainly,” Donnie stated bluntly.

“Why?” Leo asked. He didn’t really fault the purple-clad turtle since he’d do the very same thing given the chance, but he was curious.

“One,” Donnie said, shifting April to a one arm hold and sticking up a finger, “humans are more fragile than turtles, so if I didn’t catch her, she could’ve gotten hurt. Two, April is lighter than you. Three, I knew that catching her and not you would annoy you. And four,” Donnie smirked, “I like April more.”

Leo gasped in feigned horror, “So you’re saying you wouldn’t catch me at all?!”

“If you were in real danger,” Donnie replied, gently lowering April to the ground, “I would. However, if you’re just going to jump at me for the fun of it, you can eat pavement.”

“Well, at least I know Raph would catch me no matter what,” Leo pouted.

“Don’t drag me into this,” Raph said. He did not want to get pulled into another Disaster Twins debate.

Donnie snickered and gave April a pat on the shoulder. When she looked up at him, the softshell said, “You get one coffee-drop freebie. Don’t do that again.” He then returned to the kitchen for a new cup of coffee.

“We’ve all used our coffee-in-hand freebies,” Mikey whispered, sidling up to April. “It was _really_ funny when Raph did it.”

“Ohmigosh,” April gasped. “Donnie caught Raph!?”

“Yeah!” Mikey said. “You want to see?” He smirked, waving his phone enticingly.

“Yes!” April nearly shouted, grabbing at the phone _just_ out of her reach and causing her older brothers to laugh.

“Hold your horses,” Mikey laughed.

He wrapped his arms around April so they could both see the phone. Leo and Raph both peered over their baby brother’s shoulders, watching the orange-clad turtle press play and start the video. Raph appeared on the screen, grinning widely at whomever was filming.

“You recording?” The screen bobbed, and Raph let out an excited laugh. “Good! Watch how crazy this is! Donnie!” The snapping turtle raced towards his immediate younger brother.

Poor Donnie had been minding his own business, carrying blueprints and his ever present mug of coffee. The guy looked more drained than April had ever seen him before. Was that coffee really working to keep him awake? The softshell turned when Raph had called his name.

“Raph! What are you—?” Donnie’s shriek was cut off when Raph tripped over his own two feet.

“Oh, no,” Raph stated, nearly crashing into the softshell.

“I gotcha, Raph!” Donnie declared. Dropping his coffee and papers, he caught the snapping turtle. He lifted his older brother out of the fall and into a midair cradle hold with both his arms and the mechanical claws from his Spider-shell. Thank you, adrenaline for the strength boost!

April laughed at the image on the screen. Donnie was holding Raph up like he was the baboon held Simba from the Lion King!

“He did it!” Leo’s tinny voice wheezed from somewhere behind the camera shaking with silent laughter. “Donnie freaking Lion King-ed Raph!”

“I. Got. Ya.” Donnie grunted, feeling his body slowly begin to tip over. Unfortunately, having an adrenaline rush and being an unwitting Disney reference didn’t mean Donnie wouldn’t struggle to remain on his feet.

“Wow, Donnie!” Raph said, sounding impressed. “You been lifting?”

“No. I. Have not!” Donnie said shortly. He was leaning to the side at a dangerous angle now. “Turtles going down! Send help!”

“Oh, snap!” Mikey gasped. He jumped up from somewhere behind the camera and rushed to his brothers’ aid. “I’m coming, guys!”

April snickered watching the recorded Mikey latch onto Raph’s leg to return his tilting brothers back to rights. With balance returned, Donnie lowered Raph to the ground.

“Thanks, Mikey,” Raph said cheerily. He gave Donnie a hearty pat on the shell. “And thank you, too, Donnie!”

“No problem, but why were you running at me? And,” Donnie cut himself off when something squelched underneath his foot. He looked down. “No! My blueprints…” A deeply horrified gasp slipped from the softshell’s beak. “My _coffee_!” He fell to his knees and lifted the coffee-stained papers that he’d been working on for who knows how long.

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry, Don,” Raph apologized when he saw the destroyed paperwork in his brother’s hold. “I didn’t mean to ruin your work.”

The softshell’s shoulders began to shake. Leo wheezy laughter came to a stop. Someone let out a gasp, and April swore she saw an aura of shadows surround Donatello.

“Eh, heh,” Raph let out a nervous laugh and took a single step back. “Uh, Donnie?”

Donnie gave his brothers a dark look and pounced. The camera clattered to the ground, and the video cut off with a shriek of terror.

“Note to self,” April said, blinking in surprise, “don’t upset Donnie.”

Leo shrugged, and said noncommittally, “It’s kinda fun-slash-terrifying.”

“It also depends on what gets wrecked to begin the process,” Mikey added, putting away his phone.

“Yeah.” Raph rubbed the back of his head guiltily. “Those were blueprints for something he was really excited about.”

“So,” April drawled, “who suffered from Don’s vengeance?”

“They all did.”

Everyone jumped forward with a shriek. Donnie had snuck up behind them at some point and watched the last half of the video. The memory still burned a little, but Donnie didn’t feel the need to take it out on his siblings again. At April’s confused look, Donnie smirked.

“They ran,” the purple-loving turtle elaborated. “I pursued.”

“How could we _not_ all run away from you?” Leo asked incredulously. “You literally _bite_ when you’re that mad! And then you messed with our phones so we couldn’t do anything!”

“Pops even ran from you,” Raph stated. He turned to April and said, “That was the third time Donnie fried the TV to only show educational programs.”

“I wasn’t even involved in their shenanigans,” Splinter said, passing his kids on the way to the kitchen. With a shudder, he muttered, “Purple is just that intense.”

Donnie shrugged and sipped his coffee. April snorted at how nonchalantly Donnie faced the others’ assessments of him in rage-mode.

“His rage must’ve lasted a long time,” April said.

“It took three weeks for him to completely mellow out,” Mikey answered. He was looking into the middle distance. Clearly the box turtle was having “war” flashbacks.

April narrowed her eyes and gave Donnie a once over. She saw the hints of bags in the small space where his mask didn’t cover his eyes, but he didn’t look as rundown as the turtle in the recording did. The softshell had the bad habit of pulling several all-nighters in a row when he was in the zone. It had a pretty interesting effect on his personality.

“How long had Donnie been awake to get him in that kind of mood?” April asked. “It had to be at least three days.”

Raph, Leo, and Mikey shared a look then glanced at Donnie who was tapping away on his wrist computer. It was rare for Donnie to hit that level of aggression towards them, and he usually didn’t interact with his family if he was awake for too long.

“Five days, eight hours, fifty-four minutes, and two seconds,” Donnie said, taking another draught from his cup. “I would have burned all of New York to the ground if Leo hadn’t set up another pot of coffee for me.”

April grinned as Leo wordlessly topped off Donnie’s cup as the softshell spoke. Donnie didn’t even seem to notice his brother’s action. She guessed they had all learned their lesson that day to keep their purple-loving brother well-caffeinated.

“What day are you one now?” Raph asked, a hint of disapproval in his voice.

Donnie looked at his wrist and said, “Day 2.2543. Don’t worry, big brother. I have the timer set for three days. After that…” He shrugged and drank more coffee. “Depends on how close I am to being done, I guess.”

Leo leaned against Donnie with a mischievous spark in his eyes, “What are you working on this time?”

“I’m modifying the armor on the Turtle Tank,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes as he gently pushed Leo off of him. “And I need someone tiny to give me a hand. Mikey, April?” He turned to look at his youngest siblings. “Do one of you guys want to help?”

“Sure, we’ll help you!” April and Mikey cheered as one. It wasn’t often Donnie wanted helping hands.

“Great, follow me!” Donnie said, leading the way to the garage. “Leo, you’re still banned.”

Leo groaned as he was left behind. It wasn’t his fault, and Donnie messed up way more inventions than he’d never helped with, but _no_. He had to go down in infamy as the turtle who exploded the toaster! Donnie was the one who made it sentient without telling anyone!

“April, do you have a change of clothes—no, wait!” Donnie said as they reached the garage. “This is the perfect opportunity! I have something you can wear! You should be okay… probably.”

“Should I be worried?” April asked, eyebrow raised. Maybe this _wasn’t_ a good idea. Donnie looked a little too excited digging in a cabinet for something that she could wear.

“Nah,” Mikey denied. “I barely get hurt when I help Donnie with his projects.”

“Uh, okay then,” April said, not entirely buying it.

“Don’t worry,” Donnie called, most of his torso still buried in the cabinet. “I just need some help with the undercarriage, since I can’t really reach it with the Spider-shell’s arms. Oh, where is it?! I put it in here somewhere!” He started throwing things out of the cabinet and continued, “Since you guys have the tiniest hands here, you can go places I can’t. I just need you to screw the new armor on at the bottom since I can't hold things in place and use the power driver at the same time.”

“Oh, well that sounds easy enough,” Mikey said.

“Yeah, so why do I need to cover up?” April asked. If all they had to do was screw things back into place, she couldn’t get that messy. Right?

Donnie pulled his head out of the cabinet to look at April and deadpan, “Because some of the things that I need you handle contain materials that can eat through your flesh in .03 seconds.” April reeled back in shock, and the softshell laughed and delved back into the cabinet. “I’m kidding! (Eh, mostly.) Have you never worked on a vehicle before? It’s messy business, and I don’t want your clothes getting caught on something. Here it is!” He waved a large swath of yellow fabric with a flourish. “Ta-stinking-da! What do you think?”

“It’s… yellow,” April said. She took the jumpsuit and held it up in front of her.

“Yeah, well, you know we all have our own color, so… I just thought you might like…” Donnie deflated a little as his explanation continued. “I can change it if you don’t like it. I just… didn’t want to give you a generic ‘girl’ color.”

“What? No!” April shook her head fiercely. “Yellow’s my _favorite_ color, so there’s no problems there. I just wasn’t expecting you to pull out what immediately looked like a banana suit. It caught me off guard is all.”

She smiled up at Donnie, and the softshell brightened up again. Donnie always put a lot of thought into his gifts, and even if they fell a little flat on those who received them, it still meant a lot that he tried. But why did he use only yellow fabric? The accent color was just a paler yellow!

“You got her life colors right, Don!” Mikey cheered, inspecting the covering. “I want a jumpsuit, too!”

“You don’t need a jumpsuit, Mikey,” Donnie said. He paused a moment. “Didn’t I already make you one? You said you didn’t like it!”

“So?” Mikey asked, crossing his arms. “That one doesn’t count! It was a glorified airbag!”

“I’m not making you another jumpsuit!”

“That’s not fair!”

While Mikey and Donnie argued, April pulled the jumpsuit on over her clothes. She twisted to try to see it from as many angles as she could. It fit pretty well, all things considered. It was just the slightest bit…eye-searing.

“Well,” April asked, giving a twirl, “how does it look?”

Both Mikey and Donnie looked at April, and the atmosphere immediately changed. Snickering filled the air, and April instantly hated the mood change. Mikey was pressing his hands so tightly to his face to keep his laughter in that the box turtle looked like he was going to suffocate.

Donnie snorted and tightly choked out, “Who ya gonna call?”

Mikey roared with laughter. April let out an embarrassed growl.

“I hate you both,” April muttered without heat.

Donnie and Mikey gasped in mock affront. April cracked a small smile as the embarrassed feeling slowly faded. Then, Leo walked in.

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo said, waving his hand in a placating manner, “I know I'm banned, but I—” His words stopped when he saw April.

“Oh no,” April groaned.

Leo’s smile grew impossibly wide, and the red-eared slider crowed, “It’s peanut butter jelly time!”

Raph chose that moment to appear, probably drawn to all the yelling and laughter. He took stock of the situation at hand and tilted his head in confusion. “Why is April dressed like a Minion?”

The cackling that followed was deafening. April’s embarrassment flooded back tenfold.

“Ok, I'm changing,” April huffed, tugging at the zipper. Why wasn’t it moving? Was it stuck? Why was it stuck?

“Wait! W-wait!” Mikey gasped. “If we put a black stripe on it, she’d look like the girl from Kill Bill!”

“I’ll show you Kill Bill!” April yelled.

“Okay, guys...” Donnie giggled. “Ease up. At least I know it fits you, I guess I just need to adjust the color.”

“You need to fix the _zipper_!” April countered.

The zipper absolutely refused to move. It wasn’t even caught on anything! April stomped her foot in frustration, stepped in an oil puddle, and slipped.

“Whoa!” April gasped as she fell flat on her back.

“April!” Her brothers shouted.

“Are you okay?” Raph asked.

“Are you hurt? Is the room spinning? What color is my mask?!” Donnie fretted.

“Don, ease up a little,” Leo said.

“Yeah,” Mikey agreed. “You’re sucking up all of April’s air.”

April was dazed for a moment. Then she giggled. The giggles soon turned into full blown laughter, and the girl shook her head at how ridiculous her big brothers were. Still laying on the ground, April gave the turtles a thumbs up. That’s when the boys new their little sister was going to be okay.

“While your new banana suit is a- _peeling_ ,” Leo stated as he and Donnie helped April sit up, “it doesn’t mean you should walk into _slippery_ situations like that.”

April cackled at Leo’s horrendous puns while the others booed accordingly.

“Banana suit for the win,” April laughed. “But seriously, fix the zipper.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody! Hope you enjoyed the story! Nothing beats sibling shenanigans, am I right? Did I date myself with any of those references? Probably. Do I care? No.
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments :) Also a very happy anniversary/birthday to Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!


End file.
